In a wide-ranging interview, Apple CEO
Tim Cook talked about his decision to come out gay.
Cook came out in 2014, making him the
first openly gay CEO of a Fortune 500 company.
(Related: Tim
Cook: Being gay “among the greatest gifts God has given me.”)
Speaking with Bloomberg's David
Rubenstein, Cook was asked why equality was important to him.
“As I look at the world, many of the
problems of the world come down to the lack of equality,” Cook
answered. “It’s the kid that's born in one ZIP code who doesn’t
have a good education because they happen to be born in that ZIP
code. It’s someone who is maybe in the LGBT community who is fired
because of that. It’s someone who has a different religion than the
majority and therefore they're ostracized in some way. If one day you
could wave a wand and everybody in the world would treat each other
with dignity and respect, there are many, many problems that would go
away with that.”
Rubenstein asked why Cook gave up some
of his privacy.
“Well, I did it for a greater
purpose,” Cook replied. “It became clear to me that there were
lots of kids out there that were not being treated well – including
in their own families. Kids need someone to say, ‘Oh, they did okay
in life, and they’re gay, so it must not be a life sentence in some
kind of way.’ We’re getting these notes… it would tug on my
heart even more, and it got to the point where I thought I’m making
the wrong call by trying to do something that is comfortable for me,
which is to stay private, that I needed to do something for the
greater good.”
“No regrets?”
“No regrets,” Cook
said to applause from the audience.